John Adams

John Adams was born on October 30, 1735, in a modest house in Braintree, MassachusettsMassachusettsMassachusetts (officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts) is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States; its capital and largest city is Boston. One of the original 13 states, it ratified the U.S. Constitution on February 6, 1788, the sixth state to do so. Its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 7,029,917.Open the full entry. Built by Joseph Penniman in 1681, the house had been bought in 1720, with six acres around it, by John Adams’s father. His father, Deacon John Adams (1692–1761), farmed in summer and worked as a cordwainer, or shoemaker, in winter; his mother, Susanna Boylston (1709–1797), came from one of Massachusetts’ most prominent families and introduced him to Boston’s colonial elite.⁠[1]

BritannicaEncyclopædia BritannicaEncyclopædia Britannica is a general English-language encyclopedia first published in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1768; the name also refers to its publisher, Chicago-based Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. (which presents itself as The Britannica Group). The print edition ended in 2012, and the company’s main businesses since then have been the online encyclopedia Britannica.com, digital education products for schools and libraries, and Merriam-Webster dictionaries.Open the full entry’s article notes that his birthday was October 19 under the Old Style calendar and that Braintree is now part of Quincy.⁠[2]

He was the fifth generation descended from Henry Adams, who came to America from England in 1633.⁠[3]

Braintree lay about fifteen miles south of Boston. His father was a deacon in the Congregational Church and hoped that he would become a clergyman.⁠[4]

He attended a dame school and then a Latin school, entered Harvard College at fifteen and graduated in 1755. He then taught at a Latin school in Worcester, Massachusetts, to pay for his legal studies.⁠[4]

He received an A.B. from Harvard College; in Worcester the attorney James Putnam influenced him to pursue a career in law.⁠[3]

From 1756 to 1758 he studied law with a prominent Worcester lawyer, and in 1758 he opened a practice in Boston. He had one client in his first year and won his first jury case nearly three years after opening his office.⁠[4]

After his father died in 1761, his brother Peter Boylston Adams inherited the original homestead, while the adjacent house, which their father had bought in 1744, was left to John Adams. In 1774 John Adams bought his birthplace from his brother; during the Revolutionary War he and Abigail Adams lived next door and rented the house out.⁠[1]

In October 1764 he married Abigail Smith, daughter of the Reverend William Smith. Three years later the Braintree farmhouse where the couple lived became the birthplace of their son John Quincy AdamsJohn Quincy AdamsJohn Quincy Adams (1767–1848) was an American diplomat and politician who served as secretary of state from 1817 to 1825 and as the sixth President of the United States from 1825 to 1829, and afterwards sat in the House of Representatives until his death.Open the full entry.⁠[3]

William Smith was the minister of Weymouth.⁠[4]

In March 1770 he defended the British soldiers charged in the Boston Massacre; none of the accused soldiers was sent to jail.⁠[4]

In June 1774 he was elected a Massachusetts delegate to the First Continental Congress.⁠[3]

He was one of four Massachusetts delegates to the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia and was reelected to the Second Continental Congress, which met in May 1775. In June 1775 he nominated George WashingtonGeorge WashingtonGeorge Washington (1732–1799) was the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. Earlier he commanded the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War and presided over the Constitutional Convention of 1787.Open the full entry of Virginia as commander of the Continental Army.⁠[4]

The pamphlet Thoughts on Government, Applicable to the Present State of the American Colonies was printed in Philadelphia by John Dunlap and advertised for sale in the Pennsylvania Packet on April 22, 1776; a Boston reprint by John Gill was announced in the Continental Journal on October 10. The published version was addressed to George Wythe of Virginia, while earlier manuscript versions had gone to William Hooper and John Penn of North Carolina.⁠[5]

In June 1776 Congress appointed him, with Thomas JeffersonThomas JeffersonThomas Jefferson (1743–1826) was the author of the Declaration of Independence and the third president of the United States, serving from 1801 to 1809. He had earlier been governor of Virginia, minister to France, secretary of state and vice president.Open the full entry, Benjamin Franklin and others, to the committee that prepared the Declaration of Independence. He served on more committees than any other member of Congress, ninety in all, and chaired twenty of them.⁠[4]

He also drafted the Model Treaty of 1776.⁠[3]

In early 1778 he was sent to France to help secure French aid, and he was later sent to The Hague to obtain a loan and open commerce.⁠[4]

In 1782 he secured Dutch recognition of the United States and loans of five million Dutch guilders.⁠[3]

Returning home briefly from July to November 1779, he helped draft the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780.⁠[4]

He was the principal framer of that constitution, which Adams National Historical Park describes as the oldest surviving written constitution in the world.⁠[3]

In 1780 he was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society.⁠[6]

In 1781 he joined Benjamin Franklin, John Jay and Henry Laurens on the commission that negotiated the treaty ending the War of Independence.⁠[4]

He signed the Treaty of Paris in 1783.⁠[2]

In 1785 he became the first United States minister to Great Britain, returning home in 1788 after ten years abroad.⁠[4]

In 1788 he and Abigail Adams left England for Braintree, planning to settle in the Vassall-Borland house, later known as the Old House, which a relative had been asked to buy for them.⁠[7]

In 1789 he was elected vice president, with the second-largest number of electoral votes after George Washington, and he was reelected in 1792. He was a Federalist.⁠[4]

He served as vice president for eight years.⁠[7]

In the 1796 presidential election he received 71 electoral votes to Thomas Jefferson’s 68; there were 138 electors, and a majority was 70.⁠[8]

Jefferson, finishing second, became vice president. The Miller Center’s essay attributes Adams’s victory to his alignment with George Washington’s administration and notes that he won two electoral votes from normally secure Jeffersonian states.⁠[9]

On February 8, 1797, Congress tabulated the electoral votes, confirming Adams as president and Jefferson as vice president.⁠[10]

On February 9, 1797, he informed the Senate that he would take the oath of office in the chamber of the House of Representatives. On March 4 he delivered his inaugural address, and he retained George Washington’s cabinet.⁠[10]

Philadelphia was then the capital of the United States.⁠[11]

On May 31, 1797, he nominated a peace commission to France, with Gerry replacing Dana; the XYZ Affair followed. On April 3, 1798, he informed Congress that French agents had sought bribes from the American diplomats.⁠[10]

On October 18, 1797, the three American envoys sent to France were coolly received and asked for a bribe before they could meet Foreign Minister Talleyrand.⁠[11]

On April 30, 1798, he signed the act establishing the Department of the Navy, and on May 21 the Senate consented to Benjamin Stoddert as the first secretary of the navy. On May 28 he signed an act authorizing a provisional army of up to 10,000 men in case of invasion. On July 2 he nominated George Washington as lieutenant general and commander in chief, and the Senate consented the next day. On July 7 he signed an act abrogating the treaties with France, and on July 9 one authorizing the seizure of armed French vessels, which began the Quasi-War. On July 18 he nominated 14 army officers, including Alexander Hamilton as inspector general.⁠[10]

The U.S.S. Constitution and other ships were launched during his presidency.⁠[7]

On June 18, 1798, he signed amendments to the Naturalization Act that set a 14-year residency requirement; on June 25 he signed the Alien Act, authorizing the deportation of dangerous aliens; on July 6 the Alien Enemies Act; and on July 14 the Sedition Act and a direct tax on dwellings, land and slaves, which met widespread opposition.⁠[10]

During his last year and a half in office there were fifteen indictments and ten convictions under the Sedition Act; no aliens were deported or arrested, though hundreds left the country in 1798 and 1799.⁠[12]

The Miller Center’s essay states that Adams signed the laws but never advocated their passage or personally implemented them.⁠[9]

On November 10, 1798, the Kentucky Resolution, drafted primarily by Thomas Jefferson, attacked the Sedition Act and set out the doctrine of nullification; on December 21 the Virginia Resolution, drafted by James MadisonJames MadisonJames Madison (1751–1836) was the fourth president of the United States, serving from 1809 to 1817. He helped frame the Constitution, co-wrote The Federalist and guided the Bill of Rights through Congress, and earlier served as a U.S. representative and secretary of state.Open the full entry, protested the Alien and Sedition Acts.⁠[10]

On January 15, 1799, officials serving tax subpoenas in Bucks County, PennsylvaniaPennsylvaniaPennsylvania (officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania) is a Middle Atlantic state of the United States; its capital is Harrisburg, and Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are its two great metropolitan areas. One of the original 13 states, it ratified the U.S. Constitution on December 12, 1787, the second state to do so. Its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 13,002,700.Open the full entry, met resistance that turned violent. On March 12 he issued a proclamation calling out the militia to end Fries’s Rebellion against the federal property tax. On May 21, 1800, against the advice of his cabinet, he pardoned the rebellion’s leaders.⁠[10]

Several of the leaders had been sentenced to death for treason.⁠[12]

On February 25, 1799, he nominated Murray, Ellsworth and Henry as envoys to France, and the Senate confirmed them on February 27. The Convention of 1800, also called the Treaty of Mortefontaine, was signed on September 30, 1800, ending the Quasi-War.⁠[10]

Adams National Historical Park records that Adams considered this agreement the greatest accomplishment of his presidency.⁠[7]

After George Washington died on December 14, 1799, he notified Congress on December 19; on December 24 he signed a joint resolution proposing a marble monument and issued a proclamation of national mourning.⁠[10]

On April 24, 1800, he signed the act moving the federal government to Washington, which provided $5,000 for books and anticipated the Library of Congress.⁠[10]

On June 11, 1800, Philadelphia ceased to be the capital, and Washington, D.C., became the official capital.⁠[11]

On May 3, 1800, the Federalist caucus renominated Adams and Pinckney. Beginning on May 5 he reshaped his cabinet: McHenry resigned on May 6, Pickering was dismissed effective May 12, and Wolcott’s resignation took effect on December 31, 1800.⁠[10]

On November 1, 1800, he became the first president to reside in the President’s House. On November 22 he delivered his Fourth Annual Address, the first delivered in Washington, D.C.⁠[10]

He and Abigail Adams were the first occupants of the Executive Mansion, later known as the White House.⁠[7]

Presidential electors cast their ballots on December 3, 1800. When the votes were counted on February 11, 1801, Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr were tied, sending the election to the House of Representatives, which elected Jefferson on the 36th ballot on February 17 after a six-day deadlock.⁠[10]

Adams finished third in electoral votes, while Jefferson and Burr tied for first with 73 votes each. In the final House vote Jefferson carried ten states and Burr four.⁠[13]

In that election Adams received 65 electoral votes, Charles C. Pinckney 64 and John Jay 1.⁠[14]

The Miller Center’s essay attributes his defeat to the united and far better organized Republicans behind Jefferson and to his rivalry with Hamilton and the Federalist Party.⁠[9]

On January 20, 1801, he nominated John Marshall to the Supreme Court as chief justice, and the Senate confirmed him on January 27. On February 13 he signed the Judiciary Act of 1801.⁠[10]

Before Thomas Jefferson’s inauguration on March 4, 1801, the Federalist Congress created 16 new federal judgeships, and Adams filled them, signing commissions late on his last day in office, the so-called midnight appointments. He did not attend Jefferson’s inauguration.⁠[7]

After leaving office he returned to Quincy, to the home he called Peacefield, where he farmed, entertained guests and studied in the new upstairs room of the Old House.⁠[7]

For the next 26 years he stayed at home and wrote prolifically, including his autobiography and a voluminous correspondence. Charles Adams’s widow, Sally, and her daughters lived with the family, a son of John Quincy Adams stayed with them for five years while his parents were abroad, and Thomas Boylston Adams’s family lived nearby.⁠[15]

In 1812, at the suggestion of Dr. Benjamin Rush, he and Thomas Jefferson began corresponding, renewing their friendship.⁠[7]

The two exchanged hundreds of letters until their deaths.⁠[15]

Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died on July 4, 1826; Jefferson died first, at 12:50 p.m. Adams’s last words were “Thomas Jefferson survives,” after which he fell into a coma and died at about six in the evening.⁠[15]

The day was the 50th anniversary of American independence, and his son John Quincy Adams was then serving as the sixth president.⁠[7]

He died in Quincy.⁠[2]

His wife, Abigail Adams, was born in 1744 and died in 1818. Their children included Abigail Adams Smith (1765–1813), John Quincy Adams (1767–1848), Charles Adams (1770–1800) and Thomas Boylston Adams (1772–1832), the third son and youngest child.⁠[16]

Adams National Historical Park describes Abigail Adams as his wife, partner, adviser and “Dearest Friend.” Abigail Adams and their daughter Nabby sailed to Europe in 1784, and Charles Adams accompanied his father there.⁠[7][3]

The Adams family papers at the Massachusetts Historical Society comprise correspondence, letterbooks, diaries, literary manuscripts and speeches dating from 1639 to 1899, mostly from 1755 to 1889. They were a gift of the Adams Manuscript Trust in 1956 and were microfilmed between 1954 and 1959 on 608 reels.⁠[16]

The Stone Library at Adams National Historical Park holds up to 14,000 books that belonged to the Adams family.⁠[17]

Adams National Historical Park preserves the side-by-side birthplaces of John Adams and John Quincy Adams on Franklin Street and the Old House at Peace Field, where four generations of the Adams family lived from 1788 to 1927.⁠[17]

United First Parish Church in Quincy, where the Adams family worshipped, holds the tombs of John Adams, Abigail Adams, John Quincy Adams and Louisa Catherine Adams in its crypt; the crypt was originally sealed, and in 1903 its granite door was replaced by the present gate.⁠[18]

Britannica’s article judges that his reputation faded in the 19th century before rising again later.⁠[2]

Adams National Historical Park: Official website: https://www.nps.gov/adam/index.htm (opens in a new window).⁠[17]